1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to environmental equipment and, more particularly to a very low cost permit threshold detection system method that may be utilized for monitoring a large number of typically wide spread environmental equipment systems, which may be of various types, to verify environmental permit compliance on a near real time basis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many low volume wastewater treatment plants are owned by individual homeowners or small entities who cannot realistically afford to employ personnel on a daily basis to maintain and repair their wastewater treatment facility.
Due to the high costs of daily service personnel for small systems, environmental regulations may require that manufacturers of small wastewater treatment systems be certified to make, sell, and service suitable systems and then permit the smaller certified systems to be inspected and tested on a less frequent, but periodic, basis, such as quarterly, biannually, and the like. A system may be certified after extensive testing of the system design by a suitable certification entity. Environmental regulations/certifications may also require automatic detection of system problems, e.g., a pump failure or other types of failures. If a problem is detected, regulations/certifications may also require that service personnel arrive within a relatively short time, e.g., within forty-eight hours, to promptly correct the problem. If the systems do not operate properly, then untreated wastewater from the system may eventually reach local streams. If such problems occur frequently with thousands of small systems, then environmental problems could result.
Wastewater treatment systems may often be issued permits by regulatory agencies based on the capacity of the system which is often expressed in terms of a daily amount of wastewater that is treated. In the past, average daily volumes have been reported on a monthly or quarterly basis which provides an indication of whether the system use is in accord with the daily permit values. However, in some cases, wastewater input to the system on a short term basis may far exceed the daily permit allowance. For instance, a system rated for treating 500 gallons per day may be abused on a short term basis, e.g., local gatherings and the like, and may have, for example only, 2000 gallons run through the system for one or more days. This may have negative environmental and/or economic impact such as untreated wastewater passing through the system, drainage back-ups, overflows, damage to buildings, and the like.
Due to the significant problem of damage to the environment and local structures and/or other problems caused by short term wastewater system overloading, some prior wastewater treatment systems utilize two-way communication lines whereby each wastewater treatment system may be queried on a daily basis to verify compliance with the daily threshold permit values. However, the communication systems have the effect of significantly increasing operating costs due to the requirement for a dedicated communication line.
Other types of environmental systems have different problems. As one example, as shown at www.freshcreek.com, local, state and/or federal regulations may require that buildings and other construction projects control water run off into storm drains, drainage ditches, and the like. Various types of control methods may be utilized such as building retainer ponds and so forth to slow the run off draining from parking lots and/or other construction. The website referred to above shows various types of filters and systems that are utilized to catch a wide range of debris. A non-limiting list of such debris may include tin cans, wool, painted wood, plastic six pack rings, newspaper, plastic bottles, paper towels, aluminum cans, disposable diapers, cotton, polystyrene foam, cardboard, and other trash or debris that could be carried by run-off water. The above website is provided only as an example and it will be understood that a wide range of different types of filters such as netting, grating, magnets, and other means may be utilized as desired for preventing the flow of trash into drainage, and eventually to major bodies of water. However, filters are problematic in that they become plugged and need to be cleaned or replaced. This requires manpower and simple schedules for cleaning the filters tend to be inefficient. As well, it would be desirable for regulators, owners, service personnel, and the like, to know when filters become plugged without excessive cost. Moreover, it would be desirable to know if and when the filters have been cleaned either according to regular maintenance requirements, if used, and after it has been determined that the filter is plugged and should be cleaned. This type of information is costly to obtain due to the large number and wide constructions subject to such requirements.
The netting systems shown in the website above, which is used only as an example, discloses products and services for the stormwater and sewer markets. In one example, disposable mesh nets are used to trap trash, floatables and solids. Knotless, knitted mesh may be utilized and may be of various capacities and mesh sizes. Standard nets may be rated for 500 pounds or 25 cubic feet of captured pollutants. A range of special sizes and heavy duty nets having even larger capacities and handling higher flow and velocities may also be used. When filled with captured debris, the nets are quickly and easily removed from the system and disposed of in a sanitary landfill.
The net support structures may be in line with the outfall pipe and may utilize an underground structure that is out of sight. Other net support structures may be installed at the end of the pipe. These units are often installed as a retrofit to an existing outfall structure. Other net support structures may float at the end of the outfall. Floating units are an economical solution where site conditions (minimum water depth of two feet and a relatively sheltered site) permit its use. They are often installed with only minor modifications to the existing site. The types of nets required depend on site specific criteria such as peak volume, peak velocity, and trash/floatables volume. Modularity and capacity might be achieved by varying the number of nets in the system. Current installations may range from single net units to systems with 10 nets handling flows above 3,000 cfs. The standard mesh net will handle flows up to 30 cfs or 22 mgd and velocities up to 5 feet per second at the mouth of the net.
Three possible parameters used to determine the capacity of netting may include the following and/or variations thereof: peak flow volume (Q) that the system must transmit, the peak velocity (V) which the system will experience, and the floatables volume anticipated during the maximum wet weather event. For most outfall, the flow (Q) and velocity (V) are the limiting parameters. The netting system does not provide an alarm and instead requires schedule maintenance that may comprise many inefficiencies as noted above.
For those types of environmental systems that do utilize alarms, the alarm circuit for the systems, like any other component, may also malfunction or lose power. If the alarm circuit is not operational, then problems may remain undetected. Some states require that the alarm circuit be powered from a different breaker than the environmental equipment so that if the breaker trips due to system malfunction, that the alarm will still operate for providing a warning. In at least one state, regulators additionally want the power for the alarm circuit to be tied to a light or other power circuit used by the homeowner, so that the homeowner will be aware of a power failure on the alarm circuit. Otherwise, the power to the alarm circuit may fail without observation by the homeowner.
Wastewater systems for home owners are generally positioned away from the house. Installation may require running cables and wires such as telephone lines, power lines, and the like. Additional telephone lines may incur additional costs if necessary for sending/receiving data.
Environmental regulations/certifications relating to regular maintenance and inspection, as well as prompt repairs of wastewater treatment systems, are necessary and desirable to protect the environment. In some cases, non-governmental companies, such as NSF®, have been created to provide certification of equipment for compliance with NSF® requirements that relate to regulations, rules, and/or standards for such systems. Certification requirements may relate to maintenance, inspection, and repairs, as well as technical requirements for system outputs/operation such as suspended solids, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, color, oily film, foam, noise, BOD, odor, reliability, and the like. Thus, as used herein, environmental regulatory bodies may include governmental agencies, municipal governments, other governmental organizations, and private companies that effectively provide rules, standards, regulations, certifications, and the like for wastewater systems.
Due to such regulations, rules, and standards, which may vary from state to state, monitoring systems are presently available for wastewater treatment systems. Upon sensing a problem in the wastewater system, the monitoring systems may be required to produce a visual and auditory warning that will normally be readily detected by the homeowner. In this way, ideally, the homeowner would promptly contact his service company for repairs, and ideally, the service company would promptly repair the problem within the time limit required by regulation/certification. Some regulations require that the service company name be displayed on the system to permit easier contacting of the service company by the homeowner. Some systems provide a telephone dialer to directly contact the service company in case the homeowner does not recognize the problem immediately or see/hear the monitor warning signals. In some cases, the telephone dialer provides two-way communication to provide the ability for additional testing and remote servicing to thereby save service costs. In some cases, regulations may also require stickers and punch-out cards with the maintenance schedule mounted to the systems to verify that scheduled maintenance and/or testing has been timely performed. Not for profit organizations, such as NSF®, may be used and/or required to certify the type of equipment for suitable operation and certify that the manufacturer provides suitable maintenance plans for the equipment owner and personnel qualified to maintain the equipment. Homeowners often are required to purchase a maintenance plan for a service time, such as two years, with the manufacturers or other service providers who are certified to install and maintain such plans. Homeowners are often required by regulations to renew their initial service contract, which may be for two years, for as long as the equipment is utilized; however, after extensive review and research in this industry, the inventor has identified significant problems that still exist with such systems and that are discussed hereinafter in some detail. For instance, when homeowners obtain a service contract, it is often difficult for homeowners to verify that the required maintenance has actually been performed and that repairs have been made by the service companies in a timely manner.
Consequently, there remains a need to provide an improved monitoring system to protect the environment. Those of skill in the art will appreciate the present invention, which addresses the above problems and other significant problems uncovered by the inventor that are discussed hereinafter.